Ambassador Luis Cruz had an opening speech encouraging all Filipino leaders and Filipinos, in general, to raise awareness about the Philippines and the Filipino people. He asked everybody to join hands in promoting multiculturalism.

For the second part of the forum, Labor Attaché, Atty. Bay, showed a short video on Employment Permit System as produced by the Human Resources Development (HRD) Korea.

This was followed by the presentation of the guest speaker, Ministry of Labor & Employment Foreign Workforce Policy Development Deputy Director Sang-won Park. His discussion ranged from EPS issues on minimum wage, insurances, and most importantly about the revised laws particularly on the Re-entry System for Committed Workers, Special EPS-TOPIK (CBT) and the newly revised system on change of workplace.

After his presentation, an open forum was held. Most of the concerns that were raised that day were regarding CBT. Participants had been pressing on the issue regarding when will the exact date of the enactment of the CBT be? Accordingly, Director Park announced that there is no specific date for the CBT yet, however, he will do his best to push through with the plan within the 1st quarter of next year. Atty. Bay also stated that although the date for the test hasn’t been decided yet, POEA and HRD Korea have already signed an agreement regarding CBT last August 31, 2012.

Another issue that was discussed was regarding the Re-entry System for Committed Workers. A participant asked, “how come foreign workers who transferred workplaces are not eligible to be rehired and reenter Korea?” Director Park explained that in making the said law, MOEL has to consider three players: the foreign workers, the employers and the unemployed local workers. It is undeniable that a big percentage of local workers have been opposing the Employment Permit System for Foreign workers, thus, MOEL also has to limit the number of foreign workers that will be allowed to work in Korea. In addition, this law was revised to accommodate the needs of small & medium sized businesses that have difficulties in finding local workers.